PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are seeking a boost in the ongoing Indonesian Open ahead of the Paris Olympics next month.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have gone through a drop in form at the wrong time after suffering back-to-back quarter-final exits in the Malaysian Masters and Singapore Open over the past two weeks.
The world No. 5 pair, who are one of Malaysia’s best bets to win the elusive gold in the Olympics, now want to regain their best form in the Indonesian tourney, which will be their last competition before the Paris showpiece.
“This is our last tournament before the Olympics and we hope to do well here and give ourselves a boost,” said Aaron.
“After this, we will fully focus on training and our preparations for the Olympics.”
Wooi Yik said: “We need to re-focus on our game play and what we need to do on court.
“We want to forget about our exit in the Singapore Open and take it as a lesson.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik finished runners-up to India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in the Indonesian tourney last year.
Aaron-Wooi Yik made a good start when they swept aside United States’ Vinson Chiu-Joshua Yuan 21-14, 21-11 in the first round on Tuesday.
The former world champions will face Taiwan’s world No. 25 Lu Ching-yao-Yang Po-han in the second round today.
Aaron-Wooi Yik are the favourites to win the match based on the head-to-head records as they have beaten the Taiwanese pair five times in their past six meetings.
Aaron though is not underestimating his opponents as he and Wooi Yik had to dig deep before winning their last match against them 21-23, 21-12, 23-21 in the Hangzhou Asian Games last October.
“We have played Ching-yao-Po-han many times and it was a close match in the Asian Games where we played them last,” said Aaron.
“So, we need to prepare well this time against them.”
A win over Ching-yao-Po-han could see Aaron-Wooi Yik set-up an all-Malaysian quarter-final clash against Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.
World No. 20 Wei Chong-Kai Wun though first have to get past Denmark’s world No. 15 Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard in another second-round tie.
